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“What’s your favorite Champagne?”
Budding leaves in Clos Saint-Hilaire. Billecart-Salmon's rare Blanc de Noir cuvée is produced exclusively from grapes grown in this one hectare vineyard. For each vintage, there is a limited release of...
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La France V.I.P. -- Spend the night aboard a péniche (river barge) B&B on the...
View of the Marne River from my porthole window aboard La France V.I.P. in EpernayThe summer I turned 18 and my brother turned 21, we flew from Los Angeles to London on Laker Airways, the world's first...
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First stop in Champagne -- Bonnevie-Bocart, an independent wine grower in...
Wine maker Mathilde Bonnevie-Bocart and a glass of one of the champagnes that we sampled.With approximately 16,000 winegrowers and 320 Champagne houses, deciding which winegrowers to visit in the...
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Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral -- A "must see" for its role in French history...
Notre-Dame de Reims CathedralI've long believed that some sort of telepathy exists between humans. If you're thinking about someone with whom you're emotionally connected, it seems only natural that...
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Sunday's Picture and a Song: Double Rainbow (arc-en-ciel) over Paris
Yesterday afternoon, we were blessed by the sight of not one .... ... but two rainbows over Paris!The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
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Market visits with Michelin-rated Chef Eric Briffard -- one more reason to...
Michelin-rated Chef Eric Briffard sampling a turnip at Joël Thiébault's stand.Holding up a bunch of leafy greens with delicate yellow flowers, Chef Eric Briffard invites the members of our group to...
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"Caillebotte à Yerres" - Spend the Day at the Country Home of Impressionist...
"Pénissoires sur l'Yerres" (1877) National Gallery of Art WashingtonThe day dawned bright and beautiful as I boarded the bus bound for Yerres yesterday morning. Like the Impressionist painters in the...
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Cook like Le Cinq's Michelin-starred chef -- Eric Briffard's simple recipe...
Chef Briffard's Cauliflower TabouléWith summer fast approaching, I've been looking for some simple, healthy recipes that I can prepare in advance. Thanks to my recent market visit with George V's...
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Overcoming the French language barrier with Theatre in Paris: "Cyrano de...
Cyrano de Bergerac. Photo credit: ParisianistHow obvious it is now--the gift you gave him. All those letters, they were you... All those beautiful powerful words, they were you!.. The voice from the...
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Remembering the victims of the Charity Bazaar fire - one of the most profound...
The 4th of May is a tragic day in Parisian history. It's when 126 people, mostly women, perished in a raging fire that engulfed the building housing the annual Charity Bazaar in 1897. The list of the...
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Parisians have a message for you - #WeAreFreeMerci. Respond...
#WeAreFreeMerci - To celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the Liberation of Paris in 1944, the Paris Regional Tourist Office has come up with an engaging way for Parisians to say "Thank you" in...
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"Once Upon a Time the Orient Express" - A journey to the Golden Age of train...
"Once Upon a Time the Orient Express"“Bienvenue à bord!” says our uniformed conductor as she welcomes us aboard the first of four original Orient Express train cars. Rather than collect our passports...
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Follow Your Nose to the Annual "Fête du Pain" (Bread Festival) in Paris
Fête du Pain" ("Bread Festival") in ParisMmmm! If you're planning to attend the annual "Fête du Pain" ("Bread Festival") in Paris, just follow your nose to the large tent in front of Notre-Dame...
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Completely charmed by Chartres - A weekend getaway to the "City of Lights and...
Chartres, FranceIt's odd how much the weather impacts our perceptions of a place. The first time I visited Chartres, it was pouring. After admiring Chartres Cathedral's magnificent 12th- and...
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You've got to see it to believe it -- NEW, the 100% improvised musical in...
NEW in English"I'm having a party, a painting party" - those are the words that I found myself singing while waiting for my morning coffee to filter through the Nespresso machine last Tuesday....
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What grows 50 meters underground in the Cave des Roches? Pied bleu, Shitake,...
Here's a riddle for you -- what grows 50 meters (164 feet) underground in a natural atmosphere of 13°C (55°F) and is sought after by chefs in France and around the world?To answer that question, I...
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Paris Rendez-Vous, the official boutique of the City of Paris: Souvenirs,...
Paris Rendez-Vous, 29 rue de Rivoli, 75004 ParisRue de Rivoli and Montemartre are overrun with shops selling colorful berets, Paris placemats, miniature Eiffel Towers made in China and other...
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Le 68 Guy Martin: An Elegant Interlude at Guerlain's Flagship Boutique on the...
Guerlain's flagship boutique, 68 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, decorated for Mother's DayCan you keep a secret? Good! Because I've been wanting to tell you about a restaurant where elegant Parisians...
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Navigating the Loire River and Picnicking Aboard L'Aigrette with Passeurs de...
A sandy island in the Loire RiverIn a month dotted with public holidays and long weekends, the weather has not been kind. It's almost as if Mother Nature wants to punish the French for having so many...
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Parc de Bagatelle: Award winning roses, peacocks and the former residence of...
Château de Bagatelle64 days -- that's how long it took the Count of Artois, subsequently King Charles X, to build the Château de Bagatelle in 1777. The challenge arose after Queen Marie-Antoinette, the...
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